[child-rights] Johannesburg summit could undermine efforts to combat child poverty

21 August 2002

A new report Globalisation and Children's Rights: What Role for the
Private Sector? launched by children's charity Save the Children on
the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg raises serious concerns over the Summit's plan to
increase private sector involvement in development initiatives around
the world.

The key focus of the World Summit will be on forming public-private
partnerships as a means to deliver sustainable development, including
the provision of basic services such as water, education and health.

Yet Save the Children's report shows that the increased involvement
of the private sector in delivering such basic services is likely to
have a negative impact on the equity, quality and capacity of these
services to combat poverty and fulfil children's rights.

Water privatisation, for example, typically raises domestic rates far
higher than poor families can afford, forcing many to collect water
from untreated sources and exposing their children to water-borne
diseases which already kill more than two million children every
year.

Similarly, charges for health care and education as levied by the
private sector threaten to exclude the poorest children from access
to those basic services, or drive families into poverty through
having to meet the extra costs.

Save the Children will also be arguing at Johannesburg for greater
regulation of the activities of the private sector in developing
countries. While some multinational companies have provided genuine
development opportunities to young people and their families, others
have shown little regard for their social and environmental
responsibilities towards the communities with whom they work.

Recent scandals involving global companies such as Enron, WorldCom
and Andersen have underlined the need for improved regulation of the
private sector. Save the Children is concerned at the international
trend towards deregulation of foreign investment, particularly
through investment-related agreements at the World Trade Organisation
such as GATS (the General Agreement on Trade in Services).

John Hilary, Trade Policy Adviser at Save the Children, states: "The
Johannesburg summit is rushing to involve the private sector in more
and more aspects of sustainable development. Where multinationals are
involved, they must be carefully regulated to ensure social and
environmental benefits are realised. There may well also be
circumstances in which private sector engagement is simply not the
best option in the first place."

Save the Children is calling for a positive agenda for sustainable
development to include:

   *  A legally binding international framework for corporate
     accountability and liability, which upholds children's rights.
   *  A reversal of the current trend towards deregulation of foreign
     investment at the national level, and a revision of international
     investment agreements in order to restore national capacity to
     regulate foreign investors effectively in pursuit of national
     development goals.
   * A thorough reappraisal of the World Bank's commitment to
     privatisation of basic services, including urgent reviews of the
     Bank's Private Sector Development Strategy and the International
     Finance Corporation's intention to press for greater private
     sector involvement in basic services.

Ends

For more information or a copy of the report contact Carolyne Culver
in the Save the Children UK Press Office
Direct line: +44 (0)20 7716 2280
Out of hours: +44 (0)7831 650 409

To contact Save the Children UK at the conference, call John Hilary
on +44 (0)7900 917794